This is an open letter to all those who are so fearful of COVID-19 that you are willing to impose indefinite, liberty-curbing restrictions on your fellow citizens.  I understand a certain amount of concern regarding this virus.  It has taken the lives of many people in America and in the world.
However, as the early days of this outbreak passed and it became apparent that, while more deadly than the seasonal flu, it was nowhere close to an apocalyptic event, this virus was not allowed to be put in proper perspective.  The true risks of death were never properly framed, instead allowing hyperbolic worst-case scenarios to be amplified and panic to ensue.  Panic led to poor public policy and life-altering devastation beyond the physical toll of the virus itself. 

Normal citizens suddenly became outlaws for not wearing masks, trying to keep their businesses open, having parties with friends, and attending church.  Neighbor has turned against neighbor as we have quickly been conditioned to view fellow human beings as potential agents of death who need to be properly compliant for the good of all.  No longer is it each person taking responsibility for their own well-being, but instead we have grown comfortable telling others how to live to enable us to feel safe.  And along the way many developed an irrational standard that no one should ever get sick again.

I believe that many of you are coming from a place of sincerity.  You want to protect yourselves, your loved ones, and society at large.  But there are bigger issues at stake than a virus.  Over the past year we have seen pastors arrested for the crime of keeping their churches open.  Mothers hauled off in handcuffs for taking their children to a playground.  We are now talking about forcing people to get injected with an experimental vaccine to obtain a “passport” to return to normal society.  We are vilifying our neighbors and seeing a dystopian society unfold before our very eyes.
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But I suppose dystopia is in the eye of the beholder.  Those blinded by fear see restriction as prudence, compliance as necessary, and resistance as a threat to the safety of all.  However, if you persist in leading us down this path, the day will come when someone else’s fear will be used to force you to do something that you do not want to do.  Only then will you understand the proper balance between liberty and safety.  But by then it will be too late, because in the name of your vision of safety you will have silenced all the voices who might have spoken on behalf of your liberty.

​There are certain tactics would-be tyrants employ to claim and maintain power.  These strategies are being carried out in our current society.  It is important to recognize them for what they are before they achieve their purpose.
 
Division
We are all familiar with the term “divide and conquer”.  Tyrants seek to divide society into groups.  They turn group affiliation into personal identification to separate the individual from the unifying greater whole.  We are no longer American, Christian, etc.  We are instead black, white, gay, trans, male, female, etc. They then pit these groups against each other to weaken the structure of the society they seek to overthrow.  The groups take on descriptors such as oppressed and oppressor, extremist and resistance, patriarchy and progressive.  There is no denying that our current society is deeply divided and ripe for overthrow.
 
Intimidation
Hitler had his “brown shirts” who in the days prior to his rise to total power, would patrol the sidelines of parades and beat anyone who refused to give the Nazi salute.  By-standers quickly learned that they had better publicly honor the aspiring German leader and his National Socialist party whether they fully agreed with him or not.  Intimidation coerces the appearance of support from the ambivalent, amplifying the perceived power of a movement.  Perception becomes reality.  Today we have the BLM movement, ANTIFA, and Cancel Culture both literally and figuratively beating people into submission to advance an ideology that seeks to transform the structure of our society.  The individuals involved in these causes might think they are working to build a better world, but they are just foot soldiers for a tyranny that will bring them to heel when their usefulness has run its course.
 
Fear
Ben Franklin famous said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  Promising safety to a frightened population in exchange for their total submission is perhaps the oldest trick of tyrants.  For decades, the Democrat party has used the fear of economic insecurity and the promises of government benefits to carve out a perpetual constituency.  The Republicans used the fear of terrorism following 9/11 to bring about one of the most audacious submissions of personal liberty in the form of the Patriot Act.  But both pale in comparison to the chilling suspension of liberty during the COVID-19 crisis.  The year 2020 proved to tyrants that Americans can be frightened into total submission.
 
Ignorance
The prophet Hosea wrote, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  There was a reason why it was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write.  Knowledge is power.  The absence of knowledge makes it easier to control others.  If you do not know or understand other groups, you can be made to believe they are your enemy.  If facts are not presented to you in the proper context, a disease can be amplified into a terror-inducing plague that can then be used as a pretext to get you to accept previously unthinkable restrictions upon your liberty.
 
Vilification
To complete their rise to power, tyrants need to paint the old order as something that is evil and therefore the moral imperative is to replace it.  They also need to vilify anyone who refuses to conform to the objectives of the revolution.  This is where the seeds of division, the fruit of fear, the blindness of ignorance, and the hammer of intimidation combine to overthrow society and replace it with tyranny.  When a segment of society refuses to be made ignorant or sufficiently frightened, the fearful and compliant must be made to believe that the non-compliance of others is a threat to their safety.  Enforcing compliance becomes a matter of survival and extreme measures can therefore be justified to eliminate any opposition.  This is the path to concentration camps and mass graves.  This is the path we are on.
 
The tools of tyrants are doing their work on our society.  It is not yet too late to prevent the completion of their end goal.  We must reject division.  We must refuse to be intimidated.  We must stay informed and engage in critical thinking.  We must never allow ourselves to be frightened into surrendering our freedom, even if we are told it is just for a short time.  Above all else, we must maintain a firm reliance on the promises of God.  He brings us unity through faith in him.  He brings us strength to withstand those who would intimidate us.  He brings us hope in the face of fear.  And in him all truth is rooted.  As John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”